Got a lived-in-the-box-for-8-years HP laptop given to me by a friend. Basically, they wanted a PC in 2002, bought it and then didn't use it.

As well as being "like new" this thing is excellent mechanically (well it's an HP - great keyboard, screen) - but it predates Wifi, had a crippled XP install and was appallingly slow. CPU is a P-III M running at 1200/800 (...the slowness was all XP) plus 512M ram. Battery is surprisingly OK and goes for 2hrs+

Wiped disk (20g SCSI) and played with various Linux's - Kanotix 2010-32bit runs like a dream on it; nice to see the 3.5 series KDE again. Very practical. It's now the PC's main OS.

On to the WiFi issue. I've got a Atheros chipset USB dongle, but it seems that madwifi can't talk through a USB interface. So that's out and I need to get something else.

Suggestions? What wifi interface should I get which "works out of the box" with Kanotix? I favour a USB wifi.

Why? The PCMCIA slot now has a USB 2 interface card in it - the built-in USB is only 1.1. But if needs be I can go PCMCIA.

Thanks for your help...

brodders

PS: the K2010 installer didn't create xorg.conf so no X; had to use X -config and copy resulting file across to /etc/X11. Otherwise, painless install.

Offer this week: LogiLink WL0049A Wireless N USB2.0 Adapter ¤7.50Windoze only Support
Considering the price, thought I'd risk it, and find a driver by and by.

Stuck the stick in, no indication of new HW found. Pulled LAN lead out while moving over to Mint. Was easier to see lack of connection, and click to look for a connect. Stick founf two other WLANs. Selected the FritzBox7112. Got asked for WPA/WPA2 password, and then to choose a key ring password, which I did. Then went into a connection loop of connecting - unconnected - WPA/WPA2 password request ..

Returned to Kanotix, took bit longer to find comms symbol on bottom panel. Clicked it, again had to give WPA/WPA2 password, but was not asked to choose a keyring pw. Connection sequence: Looking for IP address, followed by connected!

Reports 38% signal strength despite fact that Router about a metre away from USB stick, while I have no idea where the other two routers are with almost the same strengths of 38% and 35%. Nevertheless delay in Internet access just slightly more than LAN connection, not bad for 150 MBit/s connection.

After sleeping on it, the boot's on the other foot. Mint has now decided to connect and reports a rate of 36 Mbit/s, while Kanotix now exceedingly slow with 1 Mbit/s on signal strength of 50%, at a distance of some 30m from router. Driver is rt2800usb.

Any suggestions how I can rev up Kanotix?

Playing online Doppelkopf there is a significant delay between playing a card and it being seen to be played

You could try antiX for your machine, lightweight distro with a Mepis kernel and patches/firmware included.

I have an old workhorse, 600 mhz 128mb sloow SDram Toshiba Satellite. antix with openbox with no icons or frills works fine. I use this especially when working in a big reading hall, which I often do. - then I can leave it at my desk without worrying much about thieves.

It's like those fly-by-wire planes, everything working alright, erroneous feedback, take evasive action and crash! Same driver on both Kanotix annd Mitnt works OK. It's only interpretation of driver feedback that's erroneous. Driver rt2800usb tends to crash more frequently under Kanotix (lost connection). On Kanotix once the connection is lost I'm not able to restore it, and ha ve to resort to a warm boot